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Distractible baby and reverse cycling

Hi All, I have a gorgeous 4 month old baby boy who for the last 6 weeks has been getting worse and worse at feeding during the day. I now know, after advice from a LLL volunteer that this is because he is so distracible and what he is doing is reverse cycling. Also that this is a normal phase some babies go through. This is a relief to know as I was getting so stressed thinking he must be ill or something.
Anyway I am really struggling with this. I feed him in a dark, quiet room, have a fan on for white noise and swaddle him. Even then it is really hard to get him to feed at all and there is lots of crying. I used to be able to, if all else failed, wait until he was asleep or drowsy and then feed him. Even this doesn't work now, he just wakes up and screams. I am getting a bit desperate with this. If I thought a bottle would mean he fed better I would use one but he won't have it at all either.

I feel I have no life, I can't really go anywhere as he is constantly hungry and grumpy. It breaks my heart that I can't seem to feed him and make him happy, knowing it is normal behaviour is reassuring but doesn't really make it any easier to cope with. Also I have a 3 year old who is going a bit mad stuck in with me and screamer.

I don't think there is much else I can do except deal with it on a daily basis and hope this phase doesn't go on for months and it gets better. I just wondered if anyone has any more ideas or can reassure me it will get better sometime. How did other people cope with this?

Re: Distractible baby and reverse cycling

I try anytime he looks hungry, which is most of the time - he roots and sucks hands off constantly. If I do manage to get him to latch he'll suck for a bit, maybe get a let down, maybe not, and then pull off crying. He's still hungry I can tell but doesn't seem to be able to concentrate at all.

I used to think I was getting his cues wrong and trying to feed him too often. But I am so sure he is hungry due to the fact when I can get him to feed it's not for very long at all and it's not very often at all. I don't think it's a letdown problem as he's always been ok with it.

He does feed well and quite often at night so I guess he makes up through reverse cycling. His weight gain has slowed though from 9th to near 2nd since all this behaviour started.

Re: Distractible baby and reverse cycling

OP - i think we are going through the same thing! She is up at least every 2 hours to eat at night and is very frustrated at the breast during the day but acts hungry. She is also small <10th percentile. It upsets me to see her like that, I feel as though I don't have enough for her It would make me so happy to see her come of the breast satisfied!